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Gas film lubrication method on rotation shaft seal based on contact design

Yue Wang (Department of Mechanical Engineering, Northeast Petroleum University, Daqing, China)
Longqing Zou (Department of Mechanical Engineering, Northeast Petroleum University, Daqing, China)
Hailong Fu (Department of Mechanical Engineering, Northeast Petroleum University, Daqing, China) (Bohai-Rim Energy Research Institute, Northeast Petroleum University, Daqing, China)
Congcong Huang (Department of Mechanical Engineering, Northeast Petroleum University, Daqing, China)
Jiaqi Liu (Department of Mechanical Engineering, Northeast Petroleum University, Daqing, China)

Industrial Lubrication and Tribology

ISSN: 0036-8792

Article publication date: 28 December 2021

Issue publication date: 21 January 2022

154

Abstract

Purpose

Wear failure happens frequently in rubber seal of high-speed rotating shaft because of the dry friction. Some traditional lubrication methods are not effective because of the restrictions on the relative high speed, temperature and others. This paper aims to present a new method of lubrication with gas film for the rotation shaft seal based on the contact design.

Design/methodology/approach

To obtain the generation condition of gas film and good effect of lubrication in the contact gap between the shaft and its seal, a series of micro-spiral grooves are designed on the contact surface of rubber seal so as to obtain a continuous dynamic pressure difference.

Findings

The result is that the distribution of the gas film in the micro-gap is continuous under the design of the spiral grooves and the contact with eccentricity because of the deformation of rubber seal, which is verified through the simulation calculation and experiment test. It is confirmed that the lubrication method with gas film through designing micro-spiral grooves on the contact surface is effective, and can achieve self-adaptive air lubrication for the high-speed shaft under the premise of the reliable sealing.

Originality/value

The method of gas film lubrication is realized through designing a microstructure of spiral grooves on the rubber surface to change the contact status, which can form a mechanism of adaptive lubrication to reduce the dry friction automatically in the contact gap. For the cross-scale difference between the rubber seal and gas film, a new modeling method is presented by building the mapping relation for the split blocks and repairing technique with integrated computer engineering and manufacturing, to reduce the possibility of nonconvergence and improve the efficiency and accuracy of calculation.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

This paper was supported by the Cultivation Project of National Natural Foundation in Northeast Petroleum University (Grant No. 2017PYZL-04), and Support Program for Overseas Returned Researcher in Heilongjiang province (grant No. 2019–277-A2).

Citation

Wang, Y., Zou, L., Fu, H., Huang, C. and Liu, J. (2022), "Gas film lubrication method on rotation shaft seal based on contact design", Industrial Lubrication and Tribology, Vol. 74 No. 1, pp. 81-92. https://doi.org/10.1108/ILT-08-2021-0330

Publisher

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Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2021, Emerald Publishing Limited

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